Hi am working on a Java application that is built into a distribution file (a zip file) using the appassembler-maven-plugin. End-users extract the contents of the zip.
Using this plugin, we build a distribution structure that includes the required jars and two execution scripts (a shell script for unix and a batch script for windows). These scripts are generated automatically by the build process.
The pom file contains the following:
...
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
<configuration>
<attach>true</attach>
<descriptors>
<descriptor>src/main/resources/distribution.xml</descriptor>
</descriptors>
</configuration>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>make-assembly</id>
<!-- this is used for inheritance merges -->
<phase>package</phase>
<!-- bind to the packaging phase -->
<goals>
<goal>assembly</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
<artifactId>appassembler-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>assemble-standalone</id>
<phase>package</phase>
<goals>
<goal>assemble</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<programs>
<program>
<name>mixnet</name>
<mainClass>com.company.products.Application</mainClass>
</program>
</programs>
<repositoryLayout>flat</repositoryLayout>
<repositoryName>lib</repositoryName>
<configurationDirectory>properties</configurationDirectory>
<binFileExtensions>
<unix>.sh</unix>
</binFileExtensions>
<copyConfigurationDirectory>true</copyConfigurationDirectory>
<configurationSourceDirectory>src/main/resources</configurationSourceDirectory>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
<artifactId>build-helper-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>attach-distribution</id>
<phase>package</phase>
<goals>
<goal>attach-artifact</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<artifacts>
<artifact>
<file>target/${project.artifactId}-${project.version}-distribution.zip</file>
<type>zip</type>
</artifact>
</artifacts>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
The generated shell script contains the following line which makes the actual call to Java:
%JAVACMD% %JAVA_OPTS% %EXTRA_JVM_ARGUMENTS% -classpath%CLASSPATH_PREFIX%;%CLASSPATH% -Dapp.name="mixnet" -Dapp.repo="%REPO%" -Dbasedir="%BASEDIR%" com.company.products.Application %CMD_LINE_ARGS%
The batch script contains the following line which makes the actual call to Java:
exec "$JAVACMD" $JAVA_OPTS \
$EXTRA_JVM_ARGUMENTS \
-classpath "$CLASSPATH" \
-Dapp.name="mixnet" \
-Dapp.pid="$$" \
-Dapp.repo="$REPO" \
-Dapp.home="$BASEDIR" \
-Dbasedir="$BASEDIR" \
com.company.products.Application \
"$@"
We have now extended the Java program so that it uses native library files, these files are included in the distribution in a folder called "native" ( .dll files for windows and .so files for unix environments are included in the native directory)
I would like to edit the build process so that the generated scripts (both the shell script for unix and the batch script for windows) include the parameter "-Djava.library.path=PATH_OF_LIBRARY_FILES".
I have done some searching, but I cant find any documentation regarding support for this parameter in the appassembler plugin.
I tried to find a "hacky" solution by adding the "extraJvmArguments" tag to the application pom file, and specifing the "-Djava.library.path" parameter there, but I ran into problems with the path separator being different on windows and linux ("\" or "/"). I also thought about using "extraJvmArguments" and using a system variable to specify the path of the directory (which would have to be defined by the user), but this approach also has platform problems because a system variable is referenced using $VARIABLE_NAME on linux, but with %VARIABLE_NAME% on windows.
We could ask the end-users to edit the execution script themselves before they execute it, but it would be much better if the process was automatic, and totally transparent to the end-users. In this way, the end-users would not even know that they are running a Java application which is making use of JNI to call a native library.
I dont know any platform-neutral solution. Does appassembler already support this requirement? or how should this be handled?
